“At Tessa’s,” she said. “I locked the door like you told me. I’m not leaving. I’m not doing the dumb horror movie thing where the best friend goes outside to investigate a noise.”
Good. At least one of us was thinking clearly.
“Tell me exactly what happened this morning,” I said.
Dani exhaled shakily. “We were up early. She didn’t sleepmuch. She looked like hell, but she’s been looking like hell all week, so I didn’t clock it as a red flag. She drank coffee. She stared at a pile of mail like it was going to bite her. Then she left for work.”
“I’m going to call Brooke. I’ve got my men on the roads. And Dani,” I added, and my voice came lower without me meaning it to. “If she comes back, you lock the doors, and you call me first. You don’t let her talk you into anything.”
“I won’t,” she said, and it sounded like a promise she needed too. “Wyatt, please find her.”
“I will,” I said, and I meant it with every part of myself.
I ended the call and stood in my office for half a second, letting the fear sharpen into something usable. Then I walked out and found my crew.
“You’re in charge,” I told the head brewer. “I’m stepping out.”
He looked at my face and didn’t ask questions.
“Keep the place running anyway.”
He nodded once, serious, and I left through the back door like the building was on fire.
Outside, the sun was bright and wrong. The yard looked normal. The world looked like it hadn’t shifted.
I climbed into my truck, started it, and pulled onto the road.
Town was only a few minutes away, but the drive felt longer because my mind kept racing ahead, drawing maps of worst-case scenarios over the familiar land. Every ditch looked like a place a vehicle could hide. Every turnout looked like a decision point. Every stretch of trees felt too thick, like it could swallow a person whole.
I kept telling myself it could still be nothing. A dead phone. A forgotten charger. A long conversation with a clerk who wouldn’t stop talking.
Then I pictured Colin’s smile, too polite and too controlled, and my gut would twist again.
I slowed and drove Main once, scanning the curb, the lots, the usual parking spots. I didn’t see Ray’s truck. I didn’t see her.
I parked near the co-op and went inside.
The bell over the door jingled. A couple of older men by the seed display glanced up, then looked away. The clerk behind the counter nodded at me like this was any other day.
I walked up to the counter and kept my voice calm. “You see Tessa Callahan today?”
The clerk hesitated. “Ray’s niece?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m trying to find her.”
The clerk’s eyes flicked toward the manager’s office like he didn’t want responsibility. “She came in for mineral blocks for the clinic,” he said. “Looked, tense.”
“Tense how?” I asked.
He shrugged, uncomfortable. “Like she had a lot going on.”
That answer was useless. I didn’t let it show on my face.
“Did she leave alone?” I asked.
He glanced down, then back up. “I didn’t see anybody with her. I wasn’t really watching.”
“Who was working the lot?” I asked.
